Review RPG Codex Review: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

[TNO]

I don't really agree with the first third of the game being the strongest. Slicing it up into thirds, I'd argue that the middle is the strongest in terms of characters and writing (meeting potato mobsters and Talos Rucker, and picking up more tidbits about Merchenko and political puppeteers). It's also not really until a bit later into the game when you can really start to explore alternate routes and solutions, and reap the rewards of having developed your character and unlocked all the Cool Moves.

Sorry, that might have been unclear: I meant the game as a whole comprises a promising opening third (but sadly stops there), rather than the games opening third being the best (I agree the middle is the best bit).

Thanks for the review. I have one bit of feedback...


Succinct is always best.

Yeah, that was a bit too verbose. Mea culpa.

That's what killed DX:HR for me. The original DX was about all the conspiracy theories being true, and it gave you a real choice about which allegiance to pick without spoon-feeding it to you, while still being clearly sympathetic to the revolutionary mindset. In DX:HR OTOH you were playing a good corporate toady for 99% of the game, the only sympathetic faction leader was Sarif, and when you had to make your big ending choice it was either pick the sympathetic corporate overlord, a raging psycho, or commit mass murder on an industrial scale.

I.e., where DX's politics were revolutionary, DX:HR's politics are conservative. That IMO is a bigger departure than any of the gameplay or other features. How is it for this one?

Spoiler

I'd say the set-up for MD here is much more interesting than HR, with the main problem there isn't much development. The two main 'behind the scenes' players are the Illuminati trying to capitalize on the Incident to further take over the world; and the Juggernaut Collective - think hacktivists like a souped up Anonymous/Wikileaks/etc. trying to expose them. Jensen is anti-illuminati, and so - perhaps somewhat implausibly - a double agent for the Juggernaut Collective by infiltrating a front group of the Illuminati - TF29. On the surface level there's lots of non-aligned (or are they?) players too: criminal gangs, anti-aug politicians, pro-aug groups like the Augmented Rights Coalition, underground conspiracy mags like Samizat and so forth. So there's a lot of good stuff where you wonder whether a given group is being used by the Illuminati, whether particular individuals (like Miller) are being fooled or are 'in on the game', and so on. It makes a better foil for the espionagy aspects of the game than the predecessor.

The problem (as I note in the review) is the game ends with you resolving the surface level plot arc, but everything else is on a cliffhanger.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Yeah, that was a bit too verbose. Mea culpa.

I battle that every day.

 

[Konjad]

Everything always made me think about MD that it's an average game I might get on some cheap steam sale down the road, play for a bit and perhaps if I am bored at the time even somewhat enjoy it and finish.

The review changed nothing, after that I still think the same. I'll play it then, in 2018 or later.

 

[shadow9d9]

A review of a single player fps. What a waste of time.

 

[Ash]

Time spent on shitty pay-to-win is time not spent on making the game a fucking game worth playing.

Implying it would be spent making the game a fucking game worth playing.

Not to worry. This review will probably be the last we hear of the game on the codex, as the popamolers will have moved on to the next decline.

 

[Daemongar]

subverting these expectations in the narrative can work well, and can be a fop to verisimilitude

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Mankind Divided is utter shit, and this review was way too generous.

Some of the reasons below:

1. Some of the dullest dialogue in the history of the medium. And a lot of it to boot. The original Deus Ex had fairly short and to the point dialogue, which was perfect, since talking for hours about various silly conspiracies is not a great idea. Human Revolution ignored this valuable lesson and had tons of boring dialogue about an endless succession of conspiracies to the point that after a few hours, I can't imagine anyone still cared.

Mankind Divided continues this flawed approach from HR, but on top of this, makes it far worse by distilling the entirety of its universe to one (woke) issue: natural humans vs augmented ones. That's the only thing anyone talks about in this game, it's the only thing going on in the world, and every dialogue is just a rehash of this shit. So here's the thing: having tons of very long winded dialogue about a single issue is... rather dull. At least HR, boring as it was, had some unexpected mystery angles or whatever, here, it's just constant righteous whining about one thing, kind of like a 40 hour long CNN segment.

2. Very weak gameplay. Everyone on Steam seems to think MD is a step up gameplay wise from HR, but it's one of the worst stealth games I've ever played gameplaywise.

- You are not given some very basic tools that stealth games typically have, like the ability to lean around corners to see what's happening. Instead, you have to use "augs" to compensate for this, except in most cases, they are a far inferior version. Instead of leaning, you can use x-ray vision through walls, but this is way worse, since it uses valuable bio-energy, feels like cheating, is annoying on the eyes, etc.
- Basic moves like taking someone down are fucking cinematics. You have very little control over them.
- Popamole shooting... Need I say more...
- The enemy placement and alert thresholds are retarded. Try to do a silent takedown move on an enemy (e.g. stun gun or melee takedown) and enemies some distance away will often get alerted. So you have to first lead the first guy further away by throwing something there, and only then take him down. Gets old very fast. Many levels also have tons of enemies and cameras and turrets packed in, making for lots of reloads.
- Who thought it would be fun to give enemies that Titan skin ability, where they basically go invincible for 10 minutes? While yours only lasts for like 10 seconds.
- Everything being tied to bio-energy... Melee takedown? Bio-energy goes down. Use any aug? Bio-energy goes down. Given the relative shortage of biocells, you gotta play like a pauper, always holding back.
- The fucking backtracking between Prague districts... Especially once cops go into curfew mode.

3. What the fuck is up with the uncancellable credit thing at the end, going on for 20-30 minutes? I never realized that many retards worked for Eidos Montreal before alt-tabbing out.